The New Threat
by Jack Noshima
Summary: Cloud has to fight more than just monsters as a potential new threat to the planet rises, but will it be what it seems to be? -Update every weekend-
1. Prologue

A/N: This chapter is just a prologue chapter, it's setting the story up for the following chapters. The rest of the story will be from Cloud's point of view.

Disclaimer: I, of course, own none of the characters, locations or items used in this story that are part of the FF7 Compilation.

Enjoy =D

"Hello, Strife Delivery Service, how may I help you?" Tifa said as she picked up the phone.  
>"Hey, Tifa," the voice on the other end said.<p>

"Oh, hey, Cloud," Tifa said, brightening up and smiling at Cloud's voice, "how did the delivery go?"  
>"I delivered the package in time, but I've been asked to take another package to Junon, so I'm going to be gone another few days," Cloud informed Tifa, very to the point.<p>

Tifa pulled out a small notebook from under the counter and took down the details.

"Was it standard price?" Tifa asked.

"No, we got more for this," Cloud answered, "it's a delicate package, apparently, so the client wanted to make sure it definitely reached Junon without being broken."

"And they asked you to take it?" Tifa asked with a little laugh.

"We got 5,000 gil for the delivery, I'll see you in a few days," Cloud said, ignoring Tifa's little joke.

"Be safe, Cloud," Tifa said before the phone went dead.

She put the phone down and sighed a little to herself, before taking the notebook into the office and making a note to add it into the accounts.

The Strife Delivery Service wasn't an overly used firm, but they made enough money to live well enough. Of course, after all they'd been through, a quiet life was enough for Tifa. She loved the fighting, but settling down with a routine job was so peaceful after everything that had happened with Sephiroth years before, and then with Kadaj not too long ago. Cloud, on the other hand, still seemed to revel in the adventure a little. He, too, enjoyed the quiet life, but there was still that fighting instinct in him, and he always loved danger, if only a little bit.

Tifa was sat behind the counter for another 10 minutes, when the door opened. Through the door walked a fairly large black man with a gun where his hand should be. Just behind him walked a little girl of about 7.

"Hey, Barret, hey, Marlene," Tifa said, smiling at the two. "What brings you here?"

"What, can't a guy just pop by an' say hello?" Barret laughed.

Tifa laughed in resonse, "I guess so."

"Actually, I do need a favour from ya," Barret said, becoming more serious, "will ya watch Marlene for a few days for me?"

"Sure, Barret, we need to catch anyway, don't we Marlene?" Tifa said, direction the question towards the little girl.

"Sure do," the little girl said brightly, with a large smile.

Tifa giggled at the little girl, "go into the back and play whilst I talk to your dad for a bit, ok?"  
>Marlene nodded and ran into the other room, closing the door behind her, as she knew that this conversation was something that her dad didn't want her to hear.<br>"So, is this another mission?" Tifa asked, turning serious.

"Ye, the WRO were gonna ask Cloud to take this one, but Reeve said that it'd be better to not involve him in this one," Barret explained.

"How come?" Tifa asked, a little concerned.

"It's in Nibelheim," Barret said, cautiously.

"What's going on?" Tifa asked, worried something big might be happening.

"A few of the villagers have gone missin' in the mountains, and a kid who went into the mountains got really sick," Barret explained, "the WRO are worried that it's somethin' to do with the damn reactor out there."

Tifa let this information sink in, but it made her more worried.

"Maybe I should go with you, you need a partner and I know the area really well," Tifa offered.

"No, Tifa, I need you to look after Marlene, an' with everythin' that's gone down out there, it'd be better for someone who's not too involved with the town," Barret explained, "an' I'm takin' Yuffie with me. It's just a recon mission, so there's not a thing that'll go wrong, we just gotta check out what's happenin' and then report back."

"Ok, but call when you get back and tell me everything, ok?" Tifa asked, still worried.

"Sure thing, Tifa," Barret said, turning towards the door.

"Oh and..." Barret started, but Tifa cut him off.

"I won't tell Cloud about this."

Barret nodded his thanks and then left. Outside, Tifa saw him get into a car and drive away. She picked up a cloth and started wiping down the counter, as she always did when she was nervous about something. It seemed like there might be trouble brewing around the reactors again, even though they were all supposed to be shut down and cleared out. This worried her.

A few hours later, Tifa was watching cartoons with Marlene. Cartoons had never really existed before a few months ago. There were a few children's programs, but they weren't really mainstream. However, as part of some new schemes that the World Regenesis Organisation had put in place, cartoons were now broad cast regularly. They were designed to make the world seem like less of a depressing place to be for children, and to inspire them to want to improve the world. The phone rang, right in the middle of one of the cartoons, so Tifa went to answer it, letting Marlene watch alone.

"Hello, Strife Delivery Service, how may I help you?" Tifa asked.

"Hello? Ah, good, it's working,"

"How may I help you sir?" Tifa asked again, a little amused.

"I need you to deliver something for me," the person on the phone said.

"That's what we do," Tifa said brightly.

"Ah, fantastic," the voice said, in merriment, "I need to transport a box of very rare greens to the Chocobo Farm in the Grasslands."

"Ok, sir, and can I get your name and where we need to pick this up from, please?" Tifa asked, scribbling down everything on her notepad.

"Yes, of course, I'm the Chocobo Sage, or at least, that's what people call me, I live in the mountains of the Northern Continent," the man explained.

"Ah, yes, sir, I know where that is," Tifa said, writing down the location of the Chocobo Sage's house.

"These greens are very important, so I'll give you guys 25,000 gil for making this delivery," the Chocobo Sage said enthusiastically.

Tifa was taken aback by this, not expecting such a large amount to be offered straight away.

"Thank you, that is very generous," Tifa said happily.

"I shall expect you soon, then" the Chocobo Sage said, hanging up the phone.

"Living in the mountains has sure made his social skills active," Tifa laughed to herself as she put the phone down.

She considered the job for a second before picking up the phone again and dialling another number. A gruff voice sounded on the other end as the phone was answered.

"Whaddya want?" The gruff man said.

"Always the charmer, aren't you, Cid?" Tifa laughed.

"Ah, Tifa, what ya doin' callin' so early in the morning?" Cid asked.

"It's the afternoon, silly," Tifa laughed more.

"It is?" There was a moments pause. "Ah, shit, I slept in again."  
>Tifa laughed more, she always found Cid's grumpiness to be funny.<p>

"Anyway, I've got a job for you if you want it. Client is paying us 25,000 gil so I'll give you 10,000 of it if you take it," Tifa explained.

Tifa heard Cid sitting up quickly.

"Hell yeah I'll take it," Cid said enthusiastically, "where is it?"

"Remember the Chocobo Sage?" Tifa asked, still amused, but more serious now.

"Yeah," Cid said, "weird guy who lives in the mountains."

"He wants us to transport some rare greens to the Chocobo Farm, so you'll need your airship," Tifa explained.

"Got it," Cid said, sounding noticeably exuberant, "I'll get right on it. Thanks for the job."

"No problem, Cid, I'll see you when you get back," Tifa said, as she hung up the phone.

Tifa proceeded to walk into the other room and sit with Marlene to watch cartoons again.

"Was that a delivery?" Marlene asked.

"Yeah, sweety, just something for uncle Cid to take care of," Tifa explained.

"Where's Cloud?" Marlene asked.

"He's got a delivery to Junon, he'll be back in a day or two, don't worry, ok?" Tifa explained.

"Ok, but what about Nanaki and Vincent?" Marlene asked, "I haven't seen them in a long time."

"Vincent is... busy, and Nanaki is staying in Cosmo Canyon for a while," Tifa explained.

Marlene heard the pause in Tifa's voice, but realised it was probably something she shouldn't ask about. There were very few things that would make Tifa look concerned, and this was one of them, so she figured it was best left alone. She turned to the TV and began watching the cartoons again.


	2. Unknown Enemy

A/N: Ok, I know I said I'd release a new chapter every weekend, but, I'm kinda into the story now, so I may release another chapter or two before the next weekend =D

Cloud kicked his bike into ignition and rode slowly through the paths of Junon. He had completed his delivery, and now starting his journey back to Edge. The delivery was the to the town on the shore, so it was easy for Cloud to get in and out on his bike. As he was leaving, he heard a familiar voice calling his name from behind him.

"Cloud!" The voice shouted.

Cloud mentally sighed to himself, he wanted to avoid this if possible. Not because he found the girl particularly annoying, he just couldn't understand her infatuation with him, especially after all these years.

"Hey, Priscilla," Cloud said back, stopping his bike.

"How are you, Cloud?" She asked, eagerly.

"I'm ok, but I've gotta get back to Edge as soon as possible," Cloud said, hinting that he couldn't stick around.

"I thought, maybe, we could take a walk on the beach, Cloud," Priscilla said, looking at the floor nervously.

Cloud gave her a friendly smile.

"I'm sorry, Priscilla, I can't today," Cloud said, as kindly as he could.

Priscilla sighed and her face turned into a frown.

"Fine, but you better be careful out on the road," she said grumpily.

"I will, I promise," Cloud replied.

With that, Priscilla walked away in a sulk. Cloud felt bad, but it was the best way to deal with things at the moment, though he knew that he'd have to talk to her properly about why it would never happen at some point. Cloud started his engine again and rode out of Junon.

A while later, Cloud was just approaching the Mythril Mines. The mines had since become a lot more open, meaning they were easier to cross. This was done so that people from Edge could easily travel to Fort Condor and Junon, as well as people from those towns travelling to Edge, Kalm and the Chocobo Farm. The Midgar Zolom still roamed the swamps, so the WRO dug out and created paths around the side of the swamp, wide enough for trucks to travel across. Cloud came out of the Mythril Mines and started along the path. As he was travelling between a tree and a large rock, he saw a motion ahead of him. He slammed the breaks, but not soon enough. He was thrown from his bike by a rope that had been held taught in the air. Cloud rolled backwards as his bike rode forward to stop. Cloud rose to his feet quickly, drawing his Ragnarok, as all his other swords were on his bike, and assumed his fighting stance. The rope and the collision with the ground had knocked the wind out of him but he could still fight easily enough. As Cloud got ready to fight, he felt the earth begin to shake. Green lines of energy came out of the ground. Cloud jumped forward, attempting to get away from the magic. He made it out of the circle, but the earth that fire up caught his back, knocking him off balance. He quickly recovered and spun around, trying to work out who had used the earth materia. Cloud heard running footsteps. He spun round with his sword in a block position and easily blocked a strike from an incoming enemy. The enemy was the same size as him, but wore black robes. The sword he used was a katana, but it was very well made. Cloud forced the enemy back, throwing him with his strength, but he landed with ease and came to a stop. From the face of the unknown man came a sly smile. He put his hand to the ground. Cloud braced, expecting another quake attack. However, instead of an attack from below, the ground began to bulge in various places. From the two that were closest to the unknown man, a skeletal hand shot out of the ground. Slowly but sure, skeletal hands came out of every bulging of the ground. Cloud gazed upon the unknown enemy with anger. The skeletons kept rising from the ground. He knew that he'd better attack them straight away, to lessen their chances of killing him. Cloud ran towards the closest skeleton, swung his sword, and took the head off of the skeleton. He quickly ran towards the next and did the same. As he was running to the third, he saw from the corner of his eye that the skeletons he had just decapitated were still moving. Cloud stopped in the middle of his run. He could see that taking off their heads wouldn't kill them, so he had to find another way to stop them. He charged at the skeleton he'd just come from, flipped his sword over, and used the blunt side to smash the torso of the skeleton nearest to him. The bones crumpled to the floor and stopped moving, seemingly dead. Cloud smiled to himself, he knew how to take them down now. He charged towards the next skeleton and repeated the pattern.

As he was nearly done destroying the skeletons, the unknown man stabbed his sword into the ground. A bolt of energy shot from his sword to where the piles of bones were. They rose up, into the air, surrounded by that same energy. Cloud had just finished the last skeleton when he saw this being done. He backed away, raising his sword for defence. He heard the sound of laughter coming from the man. The unknown enemy raised his sword from the ground, flicked it back, and slashed towards Cloud. The broken and smashed bones pointed towards him. They then flew at him with great speed. Cloud got his sword to the point where they all seemed to be focussing, but the impact threw him back. He rolled across the floor with the bones closely following behind. As he rolled he pushed his foot down and sprung back onto his feet. He held his sword ready. As the bones came at him, he dived to the side and slashed at them. The ones at the front were turned to dust. However, the ones at the back quickly changed direction. They caught Cloud off-guard and he couldn't get out of the way quick enough. Within a second, his arm had a hundred scratches, some being quite deep. He held his arm in pain as the bones swooped round in the air to make another attack. Cloud realised that trying to destroy the bones was futile, so he looked around for other things to do. He saw the unknown man. The unknown man was just stood there, staring at him. His eyes were normal, yet there was something extremely abnormal about them. He had an expression of satisfaction at seeing Cloud being outmatched, but the way his face sat in the satisfaction was unnerving. Cloud saw that the energy, which didn't really seem to have a fixed colour, was still around the unknown man's sword. Cloud lunged forward, a second before the bones made their second attack. He was weakened from the other attack, but he was still strong enough to take out any normal enemy. With both hands gripped on his sword, Cloud swung with all his might. The unknown enemy raised his sword to defend. There was an explosion of sound as the two swords collided. A bright white light engulfed everything. Cloud couldn't see or hear anything. The only reason he knew the enemy was still there was because he felt the pressure against his sword. Unable to see, he could only push back. The two were in a lock for a full minute before Cloud regained his eye-sight. As his vision came back to him, the blurry image of the unknown man's face was close to his, leaning forward. When Cloud fully regained his sight, he saw the man smiling, as if he were having fun. Cloud noticed that the unknown man was holding his sword with one hand. He was taunting him.

Cloud released from the lock by jumping backwards. He came to a halt, and realised the bones were no longer in the air. He observed the man. The unknown man hadn't moved an inch, only to lower and raise his sword. His feet were exactly where they'd been at the start of this. He just stood there, smiling. Cloud felt his anger building up. The pain in his arm was beginning to get more intense. It was like each wound was hurting more and more every second. He had reached his limit with this man. Cloud gripped his sword with both hands again. The pain in his arm intensified as he tightened his muscles. He swung the sword above his head and brought it down with a crash to the ground. A beam of blue energy shot from the sword at high speed towards the enemy. The unknown man swung his sword across. The slash of his sword cancelled out the blade beam, however, he quickly realised that cloud was now in front of him. For the first time since Cloud had encountered this man, there was shock in his eyes. That shock quickly turned to fear. The fear turned to pain. He looked down to see the blood coming from him. The unknown man looked up into Cloud's mako eyes. His final act was another smile, as if to say, this wasn't over.

Cloud got back to the Strife Delivery Service without any more trouble. His bike wasn't damaged and he was good enough at riding it that he didn't need to rely on his injured arm too much, a talent he had learnt from when he had geostigma. He strode through the door to his delivery service as if nothing had happened. Tifa came out of the back with an excited Marlene beside her.

"Cloud, you're back!" Marlene said enthusiastically.

Tifa gasped in shock at Cloud's arm. It took a moment for Marlene to notice it in her excitement at seeing her hero.

"Cloud, what happened to your arm?" Tifa asked, moving forward to inspect it.

"It's nothing," Cloud said apathetically.

"Cloud," Tifa said sternly, "you're injured, it's not nothing. Marlene, go get the first aid kit."

"Yes ma'am," Marlene said, hurrying into the back room to get the kit.

"I was attacked by someone," Cloud said, "he wasn't like anything I'd seen before, but I killed him, so it's not important now."

Tifa looked at him with eyes full of concern. She rolled up his sleeve so she could fully see the wounds as Marlene arrived with the first aid kit.

"Thank you, Marlene," Tifa said brightly, letting the child know she'd done well.

Tifa took out a bottle of ointment from the medical kit and began applying it to the cuts. None of them were deep enough that they needed stitches, but Tifa bandaged a few places of his arm just in case. As Tifa was applying the ointment, Cloud winced in pain every time.

"No matter how big or strong a guy is, ointment on wounds will still make them cry," Tifa said jokingly.

Marlene nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Cloud smiled, seeing the funny side in it. As Tifa was finishing to patch Cloud up, there was a bang at the door. All three looked at the door. Tifa immediately put a hand on Marlene's chest and pushed her back behind her. Cloud took a step towards the door. As he did, it opened. A bruised and batter Yuffie stumbled into the door and collapsed into Cloud's arms as he rushed forward to catch her.


	3. Yuffie's Story

A/N: This'll be my last Author Note for a while. I want the story to be unbroken with these things, as it'll help the story flow better. Just wanted to say, I'm trying to keep this as canon as possible, but I don't have intimate knowledge of the events of Dirge of the Cerberus and the prequel games, so some things might be a bit off, for this I apologise. Anyway, hope you enjoy reading, and please review =)

Cloud rushed forward and caught Yuffie as she began to fall to the floor. He supported her weight so she wasn't on the floor.

"Yuffie!" Marlene shouted in panic.

Tifa ran forward and crouched beside both of them. She looked over Yuffie's wounds. There were bruisings down both her arms and on her legs, there were a number of cuts along her left side, and there was a large cut down the side of her face, but the wounds weren't life threatening.

"These wounds aren't too bad, she's probably just collapsed from exhaustion, but we need to get her some rest," Tifa said quickly. "Carry her into the back room."

Tifa was also thinking something else, but didn't dare say it out-loud, especially not with Marlene around, but Barret wasn't there with Yuffie. Cloud picked Yuffie up carefully and carried her into the bedroom, laying her on the bed.

"Marlene, we're going to need some stitches, run to the store and get some," Tifa said, giving Marlene some gill.

Marlene nodded quickly. There were tears in her eyes but she didn't allow herself to cry. She took the gill and quickly ran out the door. Tifa knew that Marlene was clever enough to work out that Barret wasn't around soon enough so she had to keep the little girl occupied until she had time to talk to her about it. When Marlene had left, Tifa turned to Cloud.

"Cloud, Yuffie and Barret were on a mission together, Barret told me that it was just a recon assignment, but it looks like something has gone really wrong," Tifa explained quickly, beginning to apply things to Yuffie's wounds to help heal them quicker.

"I understand," Cloud said, "Barret isn't here, I can see why you're so worried."

Cloud took more potion and began applying it Yuffie's cuts. As he put it on, Yuffie groaned in pain from her sleeping state. Cloud also noticed that the cuts on her side were very similar to his own cuts on his arm.

"Tifa," Cloud said, still looking at the cuts, "these cuts were done by the same thing that attacked me."

Tifa bent over and examined the girl's side.

"You're right," Tifa said quietly, "Cloud, what's doing this?"

Cloud said nothing. He was thinking, remembering the fight he had with the unknown man. The man who never spoke. He remembered the way the skeletons rose and how the bones flew at him. The magic the man had was unlike anything he'd seen before. His sword fighting ability was greater than Cloud's, and Cloud only beat him by luck. He knew that Yuffie and Barret would fare better because there were two of them, but something had gone wrong.

"I'm not sure yet, but we'll work it out," Cloud said at last.

Marlene returned shortly after with the stitches.

"Thank you Marlene," Tifa said kindly.

She took the stitches and began working with the gash in Yuffie's cheek. Cloud got up and began walking to the door.

"Take care of her for a minute, I've got to go get something," he said over his shoulder.

"Hurry back, Cloud," Marlene said with worry in her eyes.

"Don't worry Marlene, I'll be ok," he said with a smile.

Outside, he got on his bike and rode down the street. He always went slowly in towns and cities to avoid accidents. However, when he reached the highway, he rode a lot faster. Within the last year, monsters had begun to creep onto the highway, so he had to be careful not to hit anything, but they were only low level so they posed no threat to him. As he shot across the highway, he remembered coming down this same highway when he was fighting the remnants. He smiled to himself, and pushed the bike harder. He was heading towards the World Regenesis Organisation headquarters. Due to his efforts in saving the planet from Sephiroth, he had access to all WRO facilities, so, when he reached the WRO headquarters, he passed through without any questions being asked. He immediately made his way to where Yuffie worked. What he was looking for was in there, he knew this because he'd asked Yuffie to take it and lock it away. In Yuffie's work area there was a large vault. Cloud opened the vault with the pass-code she had given in case of emergencies. Inside there was a large white box. He smiled to himself and opened the box. Inside where all the materia he and his party had collected over the years. Towards the back of the vault was another door. That door was far more secure than this vault. It had layers of passwords, retinal scans, fingerprint scans, and several keys. The walls of the second room were made of the strongest metal, numerous inches thick. Inside the room were laser sensors, the most advanced robotic guards ever designed, tested and refined with help from Cloud and his party. All of this security was because inside that room, in a small box, which, again, had layers of security, was the Meteor materia. Cloud looked at this door, memories of the meteor falling and holy rising flashed back. Memories of an old friend came to him, and he felt her presence watching over him. He grabbed the magic materia he was looking for and closed the box. He left the room and closed the vault, making sure to lock it again. He inserted the materia into his Mystile and headed out.

Cloud returned to the house soon after. By this point, Yuffie had been patched up, but her wounds were still there. Cloud came over to Yuffie's side. He put his hand over her chest. Green energy flowed from his hand and covered Yuffie's wounds. They began to repair themselves before his eyes, at a rapid rate. The bruises were gone in a second, the small cuts following soon after. The gash on Yuffie's face took a bit longer, but it was no more than 10 seconds.

"Cloud, I thought you didn't like to use materia any more," Tifa said, slightly worried.

"This is a special case, we'll be needing to go back where they had their mission to find out what's going on, Yuffie needs to be healed as quickly as possible," Cloud explained, though he hated having to use materia for it.

Tifa said nothing more, she understood what Cloud was saying, and she knew how much he would be hating having to use materia to cure Yuffie quickly. Cloud kept the cure on her for a few minutes, making sure that any internal injuries were cured as well. As their cures were all mastered, most injuries were quick to be healed.

Several minutes after Cloud had cured her, Yuffie woke up with a grunt.

"Yuffie!" Marlene shouted in happiness at the girl waking up.

"Marlene?" Yuffie asked, still a bit dazed.

Tifa ran forward and put her hands on Yuffie's shoulders to stop her getting up too fast.

"Easy there, Yuffie," Tifa said softly, "take it easy for a minute."

"Hey, Tifa," Yuffie said with a grin.

"Looks like you're feeling better," Tifa said with a chuckle.

Cloud stepped forward purposefully.

"Yuffie, we need to know what happened," he said seriously.

"I know, I know," Yuffie said. "Let me just get head straight first, man."

"Marlene, get Yuffie some water," Cloud said to the little girl.

Marlene rushed off into the kitchen to get some water. Cloud crouched down next to Yuffie.

"Yuffie, there might be something big going on here, I'm not sure yet, but we need to know exactly what happened," Cloud said quickly before the little girl came back.

When Marlene came back in, she gave the water to Yuffie. Tifa then took Marlene into another room so that Cloud could hear the story in full without Yuffie having to omit any details.

"Me and Barret were asked to look into some disappearances in Nibelheim, apparently some people had gone out onto Mt Nibel and just hadn't come back. Then a kid out there got sick from an illness they'd never seen before. We were supposed to just check if it was geostigma, and if not, work out what it was, ya know. We got there fine and everything, and it turned out the kid didn't have geostigma, it was somethin' else, so we decided to have a look in the mountains. We went towards the reactor, figuring it was something to do with that, but before we got there, we were attacked by this guy. He was a really, really, really creepy guy. He just stood watching us. He made some skeletons come up from the ground, and between me and Barret, we took them out easily, and tried to get some answers out of the guy, but he just smiled at us. He shoved his sword into the ground, and then the bones of the skeletons shot up into the sky and attacked us. Half of them attacked me, and no matter what I tried, I couldn't get rid of them, so I just ran. They caught me a few times but I managed to stay away. Barret had his gun so he just shot at them. It worked quite well, and he helped me get rid of mine after as well. After we'd turned the bones to dust, we went after the guy. He stood there smiling at us still, even after we'd taken out his bone things. Barret shot everything he had at the guy and I threw my Conformer at him, but when the dust cleared, he hadn't moved. It was like everything had just gone right through him. Barret shot again and I ran in to get my Conformer back, but when I did, I was struck to the side. I don't even know how it happened. There was so much dust from Barret's attack that I couldn't even see the guy. Anyway, I recovered and I had my conformer back, so I decided to go in for a direct attack. This guy was fast though. Every attack I tried to hit him with he blocked easily, and he just smiled at me all the time with that creepy smile. Whilst I was attacking, Barret hit him with another attack. This time, one of his shots hit the guy in the shoulder. I thought I had my opening so I flung myself at him. Then I saw his eyes. They were full of anger and fury. He threw me back with something I didn't even see, I nearly fell off the cliff, and he launched himself at Barret. There was an explosion of light. When it cleared, they were both gone. We'd taken a small airship, and I brought that back here, but I was so weak. When I got here, I just blacked out," Yuffie explained, tell the story of what happened.

Cloud sat there was a pensive face, considering everything that had been said.

"Yuffie, are you willing to go back?" He asked, finally.

"Yeah I am," Yuffie said quickly, "we gotta find Barret."

Yuffie and Cloud came into the next room.

"Tifa, look after Marlene," Cloud said quickly. "Yuffie and I are going to Nibelheim."

"Cloud, I wanna go with you," Tifa said, standing up and looking worried.

"We'll be fine, you need to stay here and look after Marlene," Cloud said.

Tifa knew that this was best, but she hated having to wait behind.

"Gather everyone else together, we may need them later on," Cloud said grabbing his equipment.

"This is bad isn't it," Tifa said quietly.

Cloud looked at her with a very serious face.

"We'll be back soon," he said quickly.

He strode out of the door with Yuffie following quickly behind. Tifa watched them worriedly as they rode away on Cloud's bike. She then looked down at Marlene, who was sat with her knees up to her chin and looking sad.

"Things are gonna get bad again, aren't they, Tifa?" Marlene asked.

Tifa didn't know how to answer her.


End file.
